


stardust to remember you by

by kbirb



Series: JereJean Week 2018 [1]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff and Angst, Freckles, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Scars, Stars, USC Trojans (All For The Game), jerejean
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:55:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28466400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kbirb/pseuds/kbirb
Summary: Jean has no freckles after Evermore... until he does.
Relationships: Jeremy Knox & Jean Moreau, Jeremy Knox/Jean Moreau
Series: JereJean Week 2018 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2085111
Comments: 4
Kudos: 66





	stardust to remember you by

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for JereJean in 2018 and never transferred it until now. I recently was going through my Google Drive and discovered a few pieces from that week and fell in love with them all over again. So now you can have it!

Jean had faint memories of France. Of stars glinting on the water at the beach and of being able to go out in the sun as he wished. If he thought hard enough, he could remember a little boy with curly brown hair and red cheeks and brown dots creating patterns on his face and arms.

That little boy looked nothing like Jean, at least not after spending 10 years in the dark underground of Evermore. Instead of freckles, his skin was patterned in bruises and scars. Instead of red cheeks from the sun, he had black and blue eyes from “Exy” and red marks from being hit. His hair had even lost most of its life, the curls were almost limp.

And then Renee Walker (and in a way Jeremy Knox) rescued him and he joined the Trojans in Los Angeles. A place where the sun seemed to never stop beating, even through the smog that settled over the city like a heavy blanket. 

It took Jean a little while to warm up to Jeremy, but the Raven mentality made it hard for him to be away from him at the same time. They were living in the dorms for the summer, so Jean didn’t have to be with the Foxes and could get acclimated to the campus, the court, and Jeremy. Which meant that by extension, Jean had to get used to being around Laila and Alvarez as well. They filled his life with color and light, when he’d been so used to being surrounded by black and red.

Jean couldn’t sleep until Jeremy was in the room with him, which was particularly difficult at first because he was used to the Raven’s and their 16 hour days. 

“You seem exhausted,” Jeremy had once commented with a worried expression on his face. It was about three days into Jean moving in. He hadn’t spoken much to Jeremy, just existed in the same room as him most days. Their dorm had a balcony and Jean liked to sit on it at nighttime to stare at the stars. Jeremy would come out, wrapped in a blanket and sit silently with him.

Jean shrugged in reply. “I guess.”

“You could nap.”

Jean didn’t know how to tell him he couldn’t unless Jeremy was in the room.

A few minutes later, with Jeremy settled in on the other end of the sofa reading a book, Jean began to doze off. He napped for about an hour, but when Jeremy moved, he sprung awake once more.

Jeremy held out his hands as if to placate. “Sorry sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. I just need to go see Coach about something.”

Jean stretched and got up. “I’ll come with you then.” 

“You don’t have to,” Jeremy insisted.

Jean stared at the ground. “Please.”

He thought maybe that was the moment that Jeremy finally understood that Jean didn’t want to be alone, even if he didn’t talk much. A few days later, Jeremy admitted to calling up Kevin and forcing details out of him. Details regarding the Ravens traveling in pairs and having 16 hour days. Jeremy never left him alone again, not until Jean was ready.

Eventually, the attachment was less about feeling like a Raven and more about actually genuinely liking Jeremy Knox. Jeremy was a disaster waiting to happen at all times. He wore tank tops that showed off his tanned shoulders, he ate way too many sweets for someone so fit, and Jean was just waiting for the moment his flip flop got caught on something and he stumbled. He juxtaposed Jean’s closed off demeanor and yet knew exactly when to be silent, when to leave Jean be, and when to turn on the lights to reveal that Jean was not in Evermore after a nightmare.

Jeremy was the perfect friend for Jean.

For the first time in 10 years, Jean had his hair cut professionally. Jeremy went with him of course, driving him to the barbershop in his perfectly ridiculous yellow car covered in USC Trojans bumper stickers. Jean was nervous to let anyone near him with scissors but he also wouldn’t trust Jeremy near him with buzzers if his life depended on it. So they went and got their haircuts in chairs next to one another. When they left, Jean’s hair felt curly again.

Jeremy noticed Jean running his hand through it and smiled. “It’s amazing what scissors and buzzers in the hand of a professional can do.” 

They sat on the balcony more frequently now, even in the sun. After a few weeks around Jeremy, Jean felt comfortable enough to show his arms. But only around his roommate. The first time he’d done it, Jeremy had just stared at the scars on his body. Most of them were on his torso, but some ran up his arms, scars that he’d put there himself and scars from being tied down by Riko. When he caught himself staring, Jeremy had apologized again and again and Jean found himself reaching out to Jeremy, the first physical contact he’d ever initiated.

“It’s okay, they’re shocking.”

So Jeremy cut up some USC shirts and though Jean’s only short sleeved shirts boasted his new team name, he proudly wore them around the home. As they sat in the sun, Jean’s pale skin only at first burned which Jeremy teased him for relentlessly. But as the redness settled, his skin began to darken and he thought maybe, just maybe, he was starting to resemble that little boy with freckles once more.

Jean had begun to trust Laila and Alvarez more, though not with his secrets. They were staying nearby, not wanting to spend the summer apart, and they often showed up without warning at the boy’s dorm room. Jean always made sure to keep covered around them, something they noticed.

Alvarez finally broke at the beach one day. They were all sitting on the blanket Jeremy had provided, and Jean was wearing a long sleeved swim shirt. “Hey Jean, why do you wear long sleeves all the time?”

Jean was shocked to feel Jeremy’s hand find his and he squeezed it reassuringly. “I’m not comfortable showing off my damages just yet.”

Alvarez looked like she wanted to know more, but Laila nudged her in the ribs and she took the hint.

Later that night, Jeremy sat on the edge of Jean’s bed. “You can trust them, you know.”

Jean had no doubt who he was talking about. “I’m learning.”

About a week later, the girls showed up unexpectedly once more. This time, Jean opened the door wearing only his tank top and sweatpants. The next time they went to the beach, it was a private one, with no one around. Jean shyly took off his swim shirt with encouragement from his friends and swam in the ocean.

Sometime in the middle of the summer, Jean looked at himself in the mirror and was surprised to see a smattering of freckles on his face. He didn’t tend to look at himself much, so he took the time to really examine his own reflection. His cheeks, once very hollow, were rounding out a little. His hair was curly and a bit shaggy. The hateful number 3 was still on his cheek, but it was now nestled in tiny little brown marks.

The end of summer was spent getting to know Jeremy more and more. Jean didn’t know what it was like to have a friend, let alone four (counting Renee), but he knew Jeremy was the most special person to have come into his life in a very long time. They often shared a blanket at night when they lay on the balcony. The stars were almost impossible to see thanks to light pollution and smog, but Jean liked what he could see nonetheless. It was more than he’d seen in 10 years.

One night, Jeremy took Jean out into the desert, to really see the stars. They lay on a blanket and looked up at the stars together. Eventually, Jean’s hand found Jeremy’s and they didn’t part until Jeremy had begun to get tired and they needed to go home.

When they did, Jean sighed. Laila and Alvarez had been over earlier and insisted on making a blanket fort. All of Jean and Jeremy’s bed supplies were in the living room. 

“I’m too tired to deal with that,” Jean said, pointing at the monstrosity.

Jeremy yawned. “We could just sleep in there.”

Which is how Jean found himself in his pajama pants, laying next to a shirtless Jeremy. His roommate looked beautiful in his sleep.

The next morning, Jean got up to brew coffee while Jeremy slept. When he came back with the two steaming mugs, Jeremy sat up in the fort with a smile. They spent the day in there, watching movies that Jean had never seen. At one point, he caught the other boy staring at him, but he couldn’t fathom why.

“It’s just that…” Jeremy paused and bit his lip. “Did you know you have freckles all over your shoulders now? And your back… and your chest.”

Jean looked down and smiled. Usually he looked down and saw muscles covered in scars and bruises. But the summer with Jeremy had changed him. His skin was just a bit tanned, but freckles had begun to paint patterns all over him once more, just like that little boy in France.

“They’re like stars,” Jeremy told him. “I think I could find constellations in them.”

Jean got up and rummaged around Jeremy’s desk for a sharpie. He came back to the tent and gave his roommate a sheepish smile. “So find them.”

And they spent the evening laying in that stupid blanket fort, listening to music while Jeremy drew constellations on Jean. He gave them silly names, finding new shapes as he went. When he finished, he lay back to survey his handiwork. Jean felt self conscious as Jeremy’s eyes roamed over his body, but he looked down to inspect the ones he could see.

One looked like two horribly put together stick figures, holding hands. “What do you call this one?”

Jeremy blushed. “Hope.”


End file.
